Chase Davis, a 20-year-old Albany native, is celebrating the completion of his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a concentration in Physical Therapy from Alcorn State University, graduating a year early.
Davis maintained a 3.74 GPA while also playing the euphonium in the “Sounds of Dyn-O-Mite” band. Reflecting on his decision to attend the Mississippi university, Davis said he wanted to broaden his horizons.
“For me, I always knew that going into college, I wanted to go off, you know, away from home, just being from Albany all my life,” Davis said. “So it was just like, I didn’t want to just go around the corner. And I still went to the HBCU field. So, you know, I auditioned for a couple of bands, and Alcorn stood out to me after I visited and everything. Just decided to go to Alcorn.”
The rural setting of the university presented initial challenges. “Uh, well, to be honest, uh, it was kind of tough, you know, when I first got here, just, you know, like, for example, you know, nearest Walmart, 40 minutes away,” Davis admitted. He found support among his bandmates. “But, you know, when I got acquainted more with, like, my fellow band classmates, band members, you know, that came in with me, you know, I just got more comfortable to the area, because, you know, I was dealing with people that was around, from around here and stuff. So, you know, after a while, maybe about that spring semester or that next fall, I was acclimated to the environment,” Davis said.
Balancing band and academics required time management. Davis said he “tried to plan my days out, and really by that Sunday, I would really want to do all my work for the week. That way, I could just go to practice. Maybe I’ll study, you know, throughout the week, but I wasn’t really trying to hop out of practice and try to, you know, hop right on the laptop by 11:59.” He also entered college with advanced placement credits. “I did some college courses throughout my high school years. So I ended up graduating from a tech school with something called Early College Essentials. So that kind of took away most of my Common Core classes when I got here. I also liked summer classes in between my semesters, which gave me an extra boost. So that was the year difference. That’s how that came about,” Davis explained.
Initially, a civil engineering major, Davis shifted his focus. “Originally, I was a civil engineering major and, you know, when I was younger, I was kind of just looking at it money-wise,” Davis shared. “But I realized, you’re putting a lot of time in, and if you want a career out of it, you’ve got to be doing something, you know, that you want to, you’re okay with living with, you know, doing for 20, 30, 40 years. So, you know, I went through a couple of major changes. I went from civil engineering to social work, and then I went into biology, but what made me choose biology was I always been pretty good at science and I knew math wasn’t my strong suit so I definitely couldn’t do the engineering role and uh I chose biology specifically because like I said I always favor in science classes and physical therapy was something that I knew I would I would be comfortable doing you know for the future without counting my days to retirement retirement you.”
Davis will pursue his Doctorate in Physical Therapy at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in Florida. “I remember they came down to the school one time and I was just hearing them talk about the program and whatnot and it just felt more like, it felt welcoming to me so I look more into it and once I seen you know the campus for one is way closer home because now I’m about seven hours away so I want to be a little bit closer home and the program is accelerated so instead of a full three-year program I can be done within two years or 2.3 years basically two years so I look more into it I visited them last Thanksgiving break and that’s when I started shadowing and stuff to be eligible to apply,” Davis said.
He credits Dr. Jackson, his biology professor and advisor for the Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society, for her support. “I definitely would give it to my professor, Dr. Jackson. I took a couple of biology classes with her. And then I ended up joining the Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society, where she was over that. But throughout my whole experience, she always made sure I was OK. Uh, you know, even like through processes, especially this last semester, Pledge and she made sure, um, you know, I just stayed on my work and I always made me feel like I had somebody that I could go to and talk to on that level,” Davis said.
Balancing band and academics presented challenges. “Significant obstacles. I would say, I mean, and I wouldn’t say significant obstacles, like you said, time management between band, because, you know, some nights we would be getting out, especially during the fall when it comes to homecoming and stuff, we could be getting out about lam, 2:00 am, like going on trips and stuff and missing class,” Davis recalled. “So, you know, just making sure I was caught up on work and able to catch up on lessons and stuff that I missed, or lectures and stuff I missed.”
Davis advises future students to research graduate school requirements early in their undergraduate studies. “I would start out by telling them, you know, make sure your undergrad, well, I’ll say this, even when you pick your major in undergrad, I would tell them to know what grad school, if not what grad school, what all is required,” Davis advised. “Because you could be doing something way more than what you have to do in undergrad than what is actually required to go into your major, or whatever grad profession you’re trying to go into. So I would first say, make sure they do their research. And then I would also tell them, you know, Everybody won’t be happy, for you can’t tell everybody your plans. That’s something I learned on the way to like Not everybody wants to see you in so, you know You can’t you can’t you can’t expect others to be happy for you.”
Looking ahead to graduation, Davis anticipates a mix of emotions. “I feel like it would be surreal to me, and I really don’t, honestly, I don’t feel like it’ll hit me until maybe I get home or something, cuz it still hasn’t really just hit me for real,” he shared. “But it’ll definitely be emotional, especially knowing that I didn’t finish out with my original class, but I mean, I can’t, I can’t be sad about it. It’s still a happy feeling for me.”
He will miss the relationships he built at Alcorn State. “I definitely say my friends that I came across and all the times we had and the different band experiences that I came across, trips-wise, practice-wise, and, you know, just having that strong bond between people I met throughout the band and connections I made,” Davis said.
